Councillors are out of touch

Sir, - I attended Angus council’s development standards meeting in Forfar to hear what their intentions were regarding the proposed demolition of the Damacre School to build affordable housing.

I listened closely to the spokesman for the objectors who gave an excellent presentation to the committee asking for more time to consult with the Brechin people before Damacre School was lost forever.

Only one councillor thought this proposal was worthy and tabled an amendment.

However, he could not get a seconder and his amendment fell.

Meanwhile, two Brechin councillors, who should have voted either yes or no, had absented themselves, apparently because they had spoken about the Damacre proposals before being elected.

After listening to the comments by the committee members, it was obvious that if speaking about the proposal before the meeting debarred you from voting, the chamber would have been empty.

One member actually read from an email that was received by one of the self-debarred members.

An almost nauseating comment was made by one councillor who, with passionate indignation, berated the objector’s spokesman and asked if he had never heard of the homeless problem in Angus.

She wondered if objectors were aware that people were having to sleep on the streets.

How out of touch can these councillors be?

They have taken hypocrisy to a new level for Angus Council.

For example, as previously reported in The Courier, the SNP administration in Angus built a homeless unit in Montrose – 10 bed-sits that cost us over £600,000.

Through sheer incompetence at officer level and no interest from the Montrose councillors, not one homeless person slept there for even one night over the many years it lay empty.

It was then sold to a property developer for £110,000 at a loss of half a million pounds.

Listening to these councillors cry crocodile tears for the homeless and using the plight of rough sleepers to reinforce their proposals for the Damacre School site is as cynical as they could possibly be.

When the SNP ran the administration, they knocked down the Queen’s Park housing scheme in Brechin despite spending over £600,000 renovating the flats only 18 months previously.

The Queens Park social housing scheme, like the Monifieth School site, now accommodates private housing.

The administration sold Monifieth School for loose change to a preferred developer but it could have gone a long way to solving Monifieth’s housing problem.

The buyer made a million and the waiting list for housing in Monifieth grew.

They also stopped an opportunity for 30 wellneeded affordable houses in Montrose for miniscule cost purely for political reasons.

Do these councillors really care about the need for social housing and rough sleepers?

They should take a look at themselves in a mirror.

Then they would perhaps see themselves as others see them.

Robert Alexander. 39 Barry Road, Carnoustie.

It is time our governments were redrawing GP contracts to bring them in to the 24 hours a day world that the rest of us live in